Agent of Change: Liaden Universe Agent of Change, Book 1

Fleeing the scene of his latest mission, Val Con yos'Phelium finds himself saving the life of ex-mercenary Miri Robertson, a young Tarren on the run from interplanetary assassins. Thrown together by circumstances, Val Con and Miri struggle to elude their enemies and stay alive without slaying each other - or surrendering to the unexpected passion that flares between them.

Alliance of Equals: Liaden Universe: Arc of the Covenants, Book 2

Beset by the angry remnants of the Department of the Interior, challenged at every turn by opportunists on their new homeworld of Surebleak, and somewhat low on funds, Clan Korval desperately needs to reestablish its position as one of the top trading clans in known space. To this end, Master Trader Shan yos'Galan, aboard Korval's premier trade ship, Dutiful Passage, is on a mission to establish new business associations and to build a strong primary route that links well with existing Loops and secondary routes.

Shadow of Victory

Sometimes things don't work out exactly as planned. The Mesan Alignment has a plan - one it's been working on for centuries. A plan to remake the galaxy and genetically improve the human race - its way. Until recently things have gone pretty much as scheduled, but then the Alignment hit a minor bump in the road called the Star Empire of Manticore. So the Alignment engineered a war between the Solarian League, the biggest and most formidable interstellar power in human history.

Bold: Kris Longknife, Book 14

Despite her role as a fleet admiral and protector of a planetary system, Kris is still beholden to her great-grandfather King Raymond's commands. She has been personally selected for a mission that will, should she succeed, save millions of lives. The Peterwald Empire is in the midst of civil war. On one side is the tyrannical empress; on the other is the last person Kris ever wants to see again: Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald. Due to their shared history, the emperor believes Kris can mediate between the factions and bring about peace.

Falling Free

Leo Graf was just your average highly efficient engineer: mind your own business, fix what's wrong, and move on to the next job. But all that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat, where a group of humanoids had been secretly, commercially bioengineered for working in free fall. Could he just stand there and allow the exploitation of hundreds of helpless children merely to enhance the bottom line of a heartless mega-corporation?

Treachery’s Tools: Imager Portfolio Series, Book 10

Alastar has settled into his role as the Maitre of the Collegium. Now married with a daughter, he would like nothing better than to focus his efforts on improving Imager Isle and making it more self-sufficient. However, the rise in fortune of the merchant classes in Solidar over the years does not sit well with the High Holders, who see the erosion of their long-enjoyed privileges. Bad harvests and worse weather spark acts of violence and murder.

At the Sign of Triumph: Safehold, Book 9

The Church of God Awaiting's triumph over Charis was inevitable. Despite its prosperity, the Charis was a single, small island realm. It boasted less than two percent of the total population of Safehold. How could it possibly resist total destruction? The Church had every reason to be confident of a swift, crushing victory, an object lesson to other rebels.

The Tomorrow Log

Meanwhile, on another side of the Universe. . .Meet Gem ser'Edreth, a wizard with electronics -- and a freelance thief. Deliberately solitary, unencumbered by family or friends, he immerses himself in his profession, rising to a pinnacle of skill so exalted that the planetary crime boss seeks him out with a commission to steal. Refusing the commission, of course, is his first mistake.

Cast in Flight: Chronicles of Elantra, Book 12

Private Kaylin Neya already has Dragons and Barrani as roommates. Adding one injured, flightless Aerian to her household should be trivial. Sure, the Aerian is Sergeant Moran dar Carafel, but Kaylin's own sergeant is a Leontine, the definition of growly and fanged. She can handle one Aerian. But when a walk to the Halls of Law becomes a street-shattering magical assassination attempt on the sergeant, Kaylin discovers that it's not the guest who's going to be the problem.

The Curse of Chalion

Amidst the decaying splendor and poisonous intrigue of Chalion's ancient capital, Cazaril is forced to confront not only powerful enemies but also the malignant curse that clings to the royal household, trapping him, flesh and soul, in a maze of demonic paradox, damnation, and death for as long as he dares walk the five-fold pathway of the gods.

Closer to the Chest: The Herald Spy, Book Three

Herald Mags, the King of Valdemar's Herald-Spy, has been developing a clandestine network of young informants who operate not only on the streets of the capital city of Haven but also in the Great Halls and kitchens of the wealthy and highborn. In his own established alternate personas, Mags observes the Court and the alleys alike, quietly gathering information to keep Haven and the Kingdom safe.

Half Share: A Trader's Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, Book 2

It's a time of change on the Lois McKendrick. Sarah Krugg joins the crew, and Ishmael Wang moves to Environmental. After getting accustomed to life aboard a solar clipper, Ishmael must learn a whole new set of skills, face his own fears and doubts, and try to balance love and loss in the depths of space. Both Ishmael and Sarah must learn to live by the mantra "trust Lois".

Project Elfhome: Elfhome, Book 5

Pittsburgh: a sprawling modern Earth city stranded in the heart of a virgin forest on Elfhome. Sixty thousand humans, 20,000 black-winged tengu, 10,000 elves, an unknown number of invading oni, four unborn siblings of an elf princess, three dragons, and a pair of nine-year-old geniuses. For every story written, there's a thousand others not told. Lives interweave. Fates intersect. People change one another, often without realizing the impact they've made on others. They come together like a mosaic.

Aidee Campa says:"Loved the Concept and Execution, Even with the Loose Ends"

Quarter Share: A Trader's Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, Book 1

In a universe run by corporations, where profit matters more than life, how can an orphan with no skills, no money, and no prospects survive? When Ishmael Wang's mother dies in a senseless accident, he's given a choice: leave the planet on his own, or the company will remove him. To avoid deportation Ishmael finds work as a mess deck attendant on an interstellar freighter.

Closer to Home: The Herald Spy, Book One

Mags was once an enslaved orphan living a harsh life in the mines, until the King's Own Herald discovered his talent and trained him as a spy. Now a Herald in his own right, at the newly established Heralds' Collegium, Mags has found a supportive family, including his Companion Dallen.Although normally a Herald in his first year of Whites would be sent off on circuit, Mags is needed close to home for his abilities as a spy and his powerful Mindspeech gift.

Valor's Choice

In the distant future, humans and several other races have been granted membership in the Confederation - at a price. They must act as soldier/protectors of the far more civilized races who have long since turned away from war.

The Citadel: Mirror World Series, Book 2

Performing deeds of online valor is the last thing on Oleg's mind, though. Neither does he care about any ancient lore. He's never trusted adventure, anyway. Mirror World is no place for the likes of him. Still, he's here to stay - at the demand of Reflex Bank, which has granted him a loan for his daughter's hospital treatment. Which is the only reason he's joined the ranks of the defenders of the Maragar Citadel.

A Call to Duty: Book I of Manticore Ascendant

Growing up, Travis Uriah Long yearned for order and discipline in his life...he two things his neglectful mother couldn’t or wouldn’t provide. So when Travis enlisted in the Royal Manticoran Navy, he thought he’d finally found the structure he’d always wanted so desperately. But life in the RMN isn’t exactly what he expected. Boot camp is rough and frustrating; his first ship assignment lax and disorderly; and with the Star Kingdom of Manticore still recovering from a devastating plague, the Navy is possibly on the edge of budgetary extinction.

Black Sun: Phantom Server Trilogy, Book 3

Zander and his gamer friends used to face danger without fear, finding strength in the promise of a safe respawn. Nothing could harm or destroy them. This was only a game...or was it? A game, played in an ancient hyperspace network. A game involving dozens of real-life alien civilizations. Earth is deserted. The fate of humanity is unknown.

Remanence: Confluence, Book 2

Defying NASA, Jane Holloway, the linguist of the Providence expedition, commandeers the alien ship that crew explored. She sets off to return that ship's navigator to his home world, determined to discover who was behind the genocide that destroyed his original crew. But when she gets there, she finds his world devastated by the same plague. The remaining members of his race, uniquely gifted at navigating the stars, are stranded across the galaxy. And someone doesn't want those lost navigators found.

Fringe Runner: Fringe Series, Book 1

Aramis Reyne is an old space captain, hounded by arthritis and haunted by memories of war. He makes ends meet by running mail and supplies to the farthest, darkest reaches of the system known as the fringe. When Reyne and his ragtag crew salvage a dead ship during one of their runs, they find themselves thrown into a galactic conspiracy involving warship captains, secret organizations, rebels, and pirates. Reyne must confront wartime ghosts and dust off old skills or else he'll watch thousands die, again.

In Shining Armor: Pax Arcana Series, Book 4

When someone kidnaps the last surviving descendant of the Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, it's bad news. When the baby is the key to the tenuous alliance between a large werewolf pack and the knights, it's even worse news. They're at each other's throats before they've even begun to look for baby Constance. But whoever kidnapped Constance didn't count on one thing: She's also the goddaughter of John Charming, modern-day descendant of a long line of famous dragon slayers, witch finders, and wrong righters.

Tarnished Knight: The Lost Stars, Book 1

The authority of the Syndicate Worlds’ government is crumbling. Civil war and rebellion are breaking out in many star systems, despite the Syndic government’s brutal attempts to suppress disorder. Midway is one of those star systems, and leaders there must decide whether to remain loyal to the old order or fight for something new.

Publisher's Summary

Centuries in the past, mankind fought a seemingly unbeatable adversary from sector to sector across the Spiral Arm until the war ground to a standstill and the Enemy withdrew. Believing that they had won, the citizens of the galaxy rebuilt. The Inner Worlds, which had escaped the worst of the war's ravages, became even more insular, while the Rim worlds adopted a free and easy way with law and order. Now, hundreds of years after their withdrawal, the Enemy is back - and this time they'll be satisfied with nothing less than the extinction of the galaxy.

A 50-something who loves sci-fi, cozy mysteries, thrillers, an occasional romance, and any genre if it is a good story. And especially if it makes me laugh! No vampires or zombies though - these are NOT sci-fi!

The Liaden Universe is a full and complex one. This tale starts with the original Cantra yos Phelium, and M Jela and his Tree. Yes, the tree is a character in this story as much as any other character. I will say that I enjoyed this book much more in audio than in print, which I don't often say! The narration is excellent, because it isn't over-dramatic, but is just enough to differentiate between characters.

This download also has a conversation between the narrator and Steve Miller. Don't skip it! It gives a lot of insight into what goes into narrating an audiobook, as well as learning a bit about how Steve and Sharon write their books. As well as the good news that a sequel to Balance of Trade is coming!

I want to say either I liked this book or I disliked it, but really, it was a bit bland, and had neither any Big Ideas nor characters memorable enough to leave an impression. Filled the time but left me with no desire to read the rest of the 11+ book series. Evidently, this book introduces plots and characters who recur throughout the series and is something of a prequel.

The Shereika want to wipe out all life in the universe, and humanity is fighting a losing war against them. Humankind has bred people to be soldiers, slaves, and assassins, creating a fairly traditional aliens-light space opera universe. Even the Shereika are actually genetically engineered humans. Humans are losing the war and falling back from the spiral arm. The Shereika are mostly an off-stage threat in this book, intergalactic bogeymen who have listening devices and agents everywhere, but don't show up in their planet-killing ships... yet.

The POV alternates between two main characters. M. Jela Granthor's Guard is a genetically-engineered soldier who, while fighting the Shereika on a distant uninhabited planet, happened upon a group of sentient trees and deduced that they had somehow fended off the Shereika. So he carts a tree around for the rest of the book. On a special assignment from the military, he runs across Cantra yos'Phelium, a generically-engineered assassin who's now the solo captain of a "dark trader" - i.e., a smuggler. The two of them end up rescuing a genetically-engineered slave, Dulsey, and taking her to a mysterious man known as the Uncle who runs some sort of free colony for other slaves like Dulsey, out in the beyond.

Crystal Soldier has a bit of a Firefly vibe to it, and also reminded me of "The Phoenix in Flight" by Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge, another first novel by an authorial duo in a sprawling epic space saga, and another one I found moderately entertaining but just too paint-by-numbers to really get invested in what happens next. I don't know what it says about my reading tastes that star-destroying mega-battlecruisers no longer intrigue me. I loved Niven and Saberhagen back in the day, but 11 books of this just make me think of better or more interesting books on my TBR list.

So, this was good SF, not great SF, and if you are looking for a long series maybe it will grab you more than it grabbed me.

There is a long interview at the end of this audiobook between the author and the narrator which I found pretty interesting, since the narrator, Kevin T. Collins, answers lots of questions you might have about how audiobooks (particularly SF audiobooks) are put together.

Crystal Soldier is the chronologically first book in the Liaden Universe series from Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. It was, however, written several years after the first published volume (Agent of Change) and is thus on Audible as part of the "Books of Before" sequence.

Crystal Soldier tells the story of M. Jela and Cantra yos'Phelium, as well as the original Tree of Korval's Tree and Dragon. This is very much a prequel to the later events of Clan Korval, and leads naturally to the next book, Crystal Dragon and the migration to Liad to escape the total destruction of the universe.

If you're new to the Liaden Universe, you have a choice of how best to read the books. Personally, I prefer strict chronological order, but a valid argument can be made for published order as well, since that is how others have discovered this fascinating universe. If you're inclined that way, then start with the Agent of Change sequence first, and loop back to the earlier books when you're ready.

The narrator for this three book set of Before books is Kevin T. Collins, and he does an excellent job. Each character has a distinctive voice, but the distinction is subtle and doesn't interfere with the narrative. This was my first book with Mr. Collins as narrator, but I'll be searching out more. Well done.

I've never a Liaden book or a book from the authors. This far future sci-fi tale was interesting, the pace was constant, and the universe interesting. While this novel didn't excite me terribly, but it kept my attention and there are some interesting ideas that are in the background that will clearly be major elements of future books as this book was written after but takes place before the main series of books. I will look forward to reading them.

1*=I didn't like it.....
2*=It was OK......
3*=It was good but I will never read it again..........
4*=Maybe I will read it again in the future..............
5*=I will definitely read it again(maybe more than once)

The first book was tough in the beginning.Don't misunderstand me the book drawn my attention from the very first minutes, but all the time I had a feeling like it's dragging it's heels.14 hours is too much, it should've been 5 or 6 at the most, but the story was interesting, the narration also matched the tempo of the book so Kevin T. Collins fits to this book.

But to make sure I will get the second book. Read my next review soon.

I previously reviewed this as a 4 star book, and said that I had mixed feelings about reading number 2 after finishing, but was happy when I did. This was my first experience with the Liaden books. Having now read the Agent of Change sequence, I'm now giving this one a 5, since it really brings the whole universe to an entirely different level. On it's own, still a good book, but personally, I'd start with Agent of Change then come back to these later.

I picked up this book based on the brilliant reviews. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed by the series. While it is certainly not bad as such, it was not all that interesting either. I listened to Crystal Soldier and figuring, hey, with such good reviews, maybe it picks up in volume 2, I listened to that one as well. It was pretty much the same though, and I did not finish the series.

I've downloaded quite a few sci-fi series and I would have to say that so far this is my favorite. The narrative stays fresh and there is enough detail that you can really get involved with the story and no too much detail that it becomes tedious. I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series.

I would listen to Crystal Soldier again because many elements it sets up continue to recur throught the Liaden series. Although I have read most of the Liaden books more than once, I had forgotten where some things came from. In addition, Sharon Lee's language is outstanding, and lends itself extremely well to being read aloud.

What other book might you compare Crystal Soldier to and why?

In the Liaden universe, this book and its sequel are genuinely different. Metaphorically, they serve the same role as The Hobbit served relative to The Lord of the rings.

Have you listened to any of Kevin T. Collins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Kevin Collins is workmanlike.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would never listen to any book in one sitting.

Any additional comments?

The Liaden universe is, in many ways, as well thought through as Tolkien, but the actual writing is more tersely poetic. It offers insights into human connections in an exotic and beautiful package.

Set many centuries before the other Liaden Universe stories, this novel, and it's sequel - Crystal Dragon - are amongst the best Lee & Miller have ever written.The main characters - Cantra yos'Phelium and M. Jela - are interesting people we want to learn more about. Chance met, danger and luck force them to cooperate for mutual survival, until gradually they build a partnership. A partnership beset by trouble as they have met in what may well be the closing stages of a war waged by an enemy apparently intent on deconstructing the universe a star system or two at a time.Action, adventure, intrigue, mystery, and a bit of romance ... this is not a story to missCollin's narration is perfect, and truly captures the heart of the novel. I'm very much looking forward to listening to the sequel.

Well as you can assume from the title , i really did not like this one little bit, the narrator was , well whats the polite way of saying dull, nah lets stick with Just plain Dull, his narration was one toned and you constantly found yourself lapsing into mind wandering episodes. I strongly urge you listen to the sample.

To be fair the story was a bit full of itself. You know when someone uses lots of words to describe a idea and after listening for a few minutes you think to yourself 'i have not got a clue what your talking about' well this pretty much sums up this audio book. The action scenes leave you cold. A book with potential , but unfortunately falls way way short.

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